WEDNESDAY, NOV. 3, 2010 >>>

1. Tonight, for the 13th year in a row, the Harmon Brewery and Eatery will host its annual "Pray for Snow" party. The festivities kick off at 5 p.m. and promise to feature a toboggan full of live music, tons of ski- and snowboard-related prizes and giveaways, plenty of drinking and even more praying for the white stuff to fall from the sky this season. Will it work? Does it ever work in Washington? That's not really the point.

2. Art at Work Event: Dr. Priti Joshi of the University of Puget Sound will lead an examination of the works of William Wordsworth, George Eliot and Elizabeth Gaskell at 4 p.m. inside the Frank Tobey Jones Parlor.

3. After you're loaded on Harmon's Mighty Tacoma Ale and thoughts of powder, head over to Sixth Avenue to the 100^th Monkey Party at Studio 6 Ballroom. 100^th Monkey Karen Noland has orchestrated a worthy show with the next round of Monkey Tiles ($4) created by photographer extraordinaire Jim Oliver and music by percussionist Dean "The Dream Weaver" Tsapralis. As always, it's free, open to the universe, expected you bring food and drinkies to share - and you're bound by Monkey Law to meet three new people.

4. It's female singer-songwriters night at the Tempest Lounge. From 7-9 p.m. Paige Hansen, Megan and Kim Archer will perform as you suck down tasty cocktails.

5. Art at Work Event: Pacific Lutheran University students and faculty join together in a varied program of Early and Baroque vocal and instrumental music at 8 p.m. inside Lagerquist Hall.

LINK: It's Art at Work month in Tacoma!

LINK: More arts and entertainment events in the South Sound

TACOMA ARTS CITY >>>

After a kickoff celebration at the Tacoma Art Museum Thursday, including the presentation of the 2010 AMOCAT Awards to Oliver Doriss, Fab-5 and Urban Grace Church, Tacoma Arts Month: Art At Work will kick into high gear Saturday and Sunday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., with the famed Tacoma Studio Tours. Self-led, and offering about a zillion local artist studios to choose from, the Art at Work Tacoma Studio Tour is probably way more intimate and voyeuristic than anything you had planned for the weekend. Or let's hope so. Check it.

LINK: Art at Work Opening Celebration details

LINK: Studio Tours participating artists and map

LINK: Art at Work Events

WE RECOMMEND THESE LIVE SHOWS TONIGHT >>>

Eastside Club Olympia - Downtown. Chicago Afrobeat Project. 21+. 9 pm.

• While afrobeat has experienced a hip resurgence of late, this is a group that's been doing it since before it was cool (or as cool as it is today), and one that takes an original approach. As the name implies, Chicago Afrobeat Project has always had the goal of, "breathing the intensity of Chicago's rich music scene into the infectious sounds of afrobeat." Infectious. That word is used a lot in relation to this band. Judge for yourself Thursday at the Eastside. – Michael Swan
  

Hell's Kitchen Tacoma - Downtown. The Missionary Position, Big Wheel Stunt Show, Revolt Revolt. 21+. 9 pm. $3.

• "We're making up some new ground with the Missionary Position," says singer/guitarist Jeff Angell. "We got a couple offers from a couple labels. I'm not sure if that's what we want to do. The Independent Film Channel licensed some of our songs to use for their promos. We did 154 shows last year and sold out of our first pressing of our record and now we're on our second pressing. ... We're staying pretty busy." With the Missionary Position getting some early recognition, Angell says that he needs to be wary of how to proceed with dealing with the music business. Read my full story here. — Rev. Adam McKinney

Hi-Fidelity Lounge Bremerton. The Ray Ohls Jazz Trio. New York style jazz. 21+. 8:30 pm. $4.

Northern Olympia - Downtown. Marty Barrett, Heaths, Total Life. All Ages. 8 pm.

• Total Life is the solo project of Kevin Doria from esteemed experimental Olympia expats Growing. Like most drone music, Total Life can be as punishing as it is proficiently-crafted, and so subtle that the many shifts and eddies which unfold amidst Doria's white noise squall sometimes barely register, sticking to the margins of the listener's perception. On the extremely-rare 2005 Total Life debut, Doria's feedback-overloaded guitar occasionally contorts into something resembling a typical solo or melody, bubbling up through layers of phlegmy whorls to reach the sonic foreground. It's a little like Growing's earlier material, only morphed by mountainous heaps of distortion. Fans of both Kevin Shields (the seminal shoegaze musician who found nirvana in eardrum-immolating guitar) and Kevin Shields (the intense noise band), take note. - Jason Baxter

O'Callahan's Pub & Grill Key Peninsula. Tim Hall Band. 21+. 7 pm. NC.

Rock the Dock Pub & Grill Tacoma - Downtown. Acoustic Open Mic/Musicians Night. Hosted by Big D from 9 Pound Hammer. 21+. 9 pm.

Sax Restaurant and Lounge Tacoma - Sixth Avenue. Singer-songwriter Randall Jex. 21+. 9 pm. NC.

Stonegate Pizza Tacoma - South. Billy Stoops Acoustic Jam. 21+. 9 pm. NC.

Tempest Lounge Tacoma - Upper Tacoma. Come Out And Play Open Mic. Hosted by Kim Archer and Nick Sandy. All Ages. 7-10 pm. NC.

LINK: More live music in the South Sound tonight

THURSDAY, NOV. 4, 2010 >>>

1. Chandler O'Leary is kind of infatuated with Mt. Rainier - and this is a good thing. For one, it resulted in Local Conditions, O'Leary's interactive book. With 120 image flats and a viewing box, Local Conditions allows readers to literally create millions of Rainier-related scenes. The release of the book (a limited run of 26 hand-bound pieces of art) will be celebrated by an opening reception at UPS Collins Memorial Library from 4:30-6:30 p.m., which is kicking off a solo O'Leary exhibition at UPS through January.

2. November marks the ninth anniversary of Art at Work: Tacoma Arts Month - a community celebration of the arts that includes hundreds of community-hosted arts and cultures events, exhibits and workshops, taking place daily throughout the month - packaged by the Tacoma Art Commission. Once again, the Weekly Volcano is a proud sponsor of the celebration. The whole kit and kaboodle officially kicks off tonight at 6 p.m. with an "Opening Celebration" at the Tacoma Art Museum. The event will include the AMOCAT award ceremony for Oliver Doriss, Fab-5 and Urban Grace Church., performances by the Tacoma Youth Symphony, Tacoma Opera, Tacoma Symphony, and Tacoma Musical Playhouse, the TAM galleries will be open – which includes Mighty Tacoma, hors d'oeuvres, dessert, and a no-host bar.

3. The Tacoma Science Café kicks off its monthly science chat, over beers, with University of Washington Tacoma research scientist Julie Masura at 7 p.m. inside the Harmon Brewery and Eatery. Masura - huge into microplastics studies - will discuss how these teeny tiny particles are destroying our oceans.

4. Tacoma's theater company Gold from Straw opens the comedy Almost, Maine by John Cariani at 8 p.m. inside the Theatre on the Square.

5. The Big Wheel Steakhouse and Lounge in Parkland hosts "Ladies Club Nite Out" with DJ J-Fresh beginning at 9 p.m.

LINK: It's Art at Work month!

LINK: More arts and entertainment events in the South Sound

FRIDAY, NOV. 5, 2010 >>>

1. While the Weekly Volcano loves shopping in a boutqiue as much as the next girl, there's nothing like the rush we get from uncovering a hidden treasure at a local fashion party. So after you've thumbed through Vogue, Nylon, Elle, or wherever you go for your style fix, check the Ethereal Showcase at 8:30 p.m. in Tacoma's Opera Alley (729 Court C). The evening centers around the launch of Athena Renee Artistry, a local female owned business that excels at makeup services. When you're not having your face done at Ethereal, you'll enjoy the MLK Ballet troupe, burlesque, a fashion show featuring six local designers - including Vixens, Halter Hotties and Lisa Fruichantie - and music spun by Flat Black, Broam and Trevor Dickson. The $55 price tag includes cocktails with proceeds benefiting MLK Ballet.

2. The conceit of this production of Titus Andronicus, Shakespeare's bloodiest and most incoherent of plays, is that Shakespeare In the Parking Lot Theatre Company doesn't present the play in a parking lot but rather an empty storefront as part of Spaceworks Tacoma. Titus All Rightus! Check it out at 8 p.m. at 913 Pacific Ave. in downtown Tacoma.

3. Picture shoppers dancing in the street, vendors humming a tune as they weigh their shiny apples and L&I agents stomping toward smelly fish stands, tapping their clipboards to the beat. Sound absurd? Don't be too quick to discount it; this shit's totally going down at 8 p.m. inside the Rialto Theater. Tacoma Opera presents Gaetano Donizetti's comic opera of love and love potions The Elixir of Love - a bright and colorful comedy for these dull, rainy days. The story concerns peasant boy Nemorino's abject helplessness after he is  love-struck by the rich (and seemingly unattainable) village girl, Adina. To make matters worse, the local army sergeant, Belcore, also has his sights on the lovely Adina, making Nemorino's quest seem ever more futile.

4. The strength of a play cannot rely on a good script alone. Likewise, good actors cannot make up for terrible writing. Thankfully, eleemosynary, hitting the Tacoma Little Theatre stage at 8 p.m., features a great script with a trio of delightfully talented actors bringing it to life. Written by Lee Blessing, eleemosynary alternates between narration and dialogue to tell the story of three generations of women. It is a smartly written script that covers the range of emotions and family experiences. Read a full review of the show here.

5. The formula looks something like this: One part gay-friendly Hilltop club staring its fifth anniversary right in the face; two parts tasty cocktails; three parts remixes, mashups and electro messes; one part back patio with heat lamps; one part soul music expert DJ Bobby Galaxy; one part DJ Broam hot off his Tacoma Arts Commission Amocat Award; one part DJ Chrome Diego; three parts sparkling clean bathrooms; one part awesome. The sum equals First Friday dance party at 9 p.m. inside the Tempest Lounge.

LINK: It's Art at Work month!

LINK: Concerts go on sale today

LINK: New movies open

LINK: More arts and entertainment events in the South Sound

MORE LIVE THAN YOU'LL EVER BE >>>

A Rhapsody In Bloom Florist and Cafe Latte Tacoma - Sixth Avenue. Dinner & Music Evening, featuring T.R. Stewart. All Ages. 6 pm. $20.

Beyond the Bridge Cafe Tacoma - Sixth Avenue. Open Mic Night. All Ages. 7 pm. NC.

Hell's Kitchen Tacoma - Downtown. Aspen, Plague Ships, Crowd War, Goratorium, Dream For A Nightmare. 21+. 9 pm. NC.

Jazzbones Tacoma - Sixth Avenue. Bob Rivers Show Fan Appreciation Night, with Spike & The Impalers, Dudley Taft, Bob Rivers. 21+. 8 pm. NC.

Mandolin Cafe Tacoma - Central. Kim Archer & Nick Sandy. All Ages. 8:30 pm. NC.

Maxwell's Speakeasy Tacoma - Downtown. Lance Buller Trio. All Ages. 7-10 pm. NC.

The New Frontier Lounge Tacoma - Dome District. Makeup Monsters. 21+. 9 pm.

• T-Town's Shayne Weeks and Isaac Solverson, both with Tacoma School of the Arts ties (shocking development!) - collective co-creators of Makeup Monsters - have felt the highs only the age of instantaneous internet hype can create, and undoubtedly have the talent to justify it. Though it might be tempting to lump these kids in with the flavor-of-the-month-past chillwave genre, Makeup Monsters have more going for them than momentary excitement. Though the band started as a two-piece, Bobble Tiki understands that earlier this year a full-time drummer was added to the mix - raising the band tally to three and allowing for even more creation. – Bobble Tiki
  

Northern Olympia - Downtown. Salesman, Abusic, Dallen Graff & Outnumbered. All Ages. 7:30 pm. $6.

O'Callahan's Pub & Grill Key Peninsula. Becki Sue & Her Big Rockin' Daddies. 21+. 8 pm.

Rock the Dock Pub & Grill Tacoma - Downtown. The Trevalyan Triangle. 21+. 9 pm.

The Vault Nightclub Olympia - Downtown. The Hot Spitta, Sec, Leezy Soprano, L. Hammond, Props, Lil Quise. 18+. 9 pm. $15-$20.

LINK: More live music tonight in the South Sound

THE LOWDOWN ON WHAT'S UP THIS WEEKEND >>>

WEATHER REPORT

Friday: Mostly cloudy with a shower, hi 56, lo 44

Saturday: Mostly cloudy with a little rain, hi 57, lo 52

Sunday: Mutha fuckin' rain, hi 52, lo 39

>>> FRIDAY, NOV. 5: DANCE OLY DANCE

It's the first Friday of the month and that means only one thing: Dance Oly Dance. Head on over to TCTV Studio A on Olympia's Westside and dance to Hannah Montana, Black Flag, La Roux, Major Lazer, B-52's, Q-Tex, 7 Seconds, Hollywood Kill Krew and other local and national songs – on TV! As always, DJ PhilosoBitch spins the groove.

• TCTV Studio A, 8-9 p.m., 440 Yauger Way SW, Suite C, Olympia

>>> SATURDAY, NOV. 6-SUNDAY, NOV. 7: ART AT WORK TACOMA STUDIO TOURS

Some people just make you curious. You want to see how their minds work, what their thought processes are. You want to go through their stuff. Now's your chance. Tacoma Studio Tours - part of the bitchin' cool Tacoma Art at Work month - offers you the chance to see where artists (some of the most fascinating people among us, and with the most interesting stuff) work, as well as how they work. See how Amy Reeves works her metal magic, or what RR Anderson has in his Holistic Forge Works museum. It's a nosy, artistically inclined person's dream!

• Greater Tacoma area (click here for map), 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., free, more information here

>>> SUNDAY, NOV. 7: DIA DE LOS MUERTOS COMMUNITY FESTIVAL

It may seem weird that in Mexico, bus drivers decorate their buses with skeletons or that children feast on skull-shaped candies at funerals. Mexicans aren't death-obsessed, but as the Web site Mexico OnLine (explains, "[T]hey recognize it, mock it, even defy it. Death is part of life and, as such, it's representative of the Mexican spirit and tradition which says, 'Don't take anything lying down-even death!'"

The holiday was Nov. 2, but the Tacoma Art Museum is bringing it back to life with a Dia de los Muertos community festival Sunday. Kiddies (and the young at heart) will love sugar skull decorating, mask-making, live music, traditional foods, the tapete and checking out more than a dozen altars created by community members. Everyone can celebrate the cost - it's all free.

• Tacoma Art Museum, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., then car parade to Centro Latino, free, 1701 Pacific Ave., Tacoma, 253.272.4258

>>> WHERE OUR STAFF IS GOING

MATT DRISCOLL Editor and Self-made Hundredaire
I'll be dropping by the Northwest Convergence Zone podcast Sunday for my monthly visit with Darrell and the gang. I got real high a few months back and dreamed up this alt-sport/entertainment column - Cup Check. Amazingly it managed to come to fruition, as you may have noticed online or in the classified section of the print Volcano. Now I go on the Convergence Zone once a month and pimp the thing, which typically results in some pretty entertaining podcast fun.

STEPH DEROSA: COLUMNIST
Since I'm feeling a little generous (or a little drunk), I plan on giving you a peek into not only my weekend plans -  but through next week's plans as well.  Today I leave for Westport with Mr. DeRosa, Kris Blondin, and her significant other, Chilly D.  Returning Sunday evening after enjoying copious amounts of fresh seafood, smelly cheese, evening clam digs, horrible dancing, sand in the buttcrack, and red wine, I plan on laying low Monday and Tuesday only to revisit DeRosa Manor pt. Deux in Westport for the remainder of the week.  Oh, and sometime in there I'm going to watch the movie Halloween because I've never seen it.  I'm also going to start calling Kris Blondin "Kriserilla".  Let's see if I can get it to catch on.

REV. ADAM MCKINNEY Features Wirter
Another weekend spent at the New Frontier. Tonight, I'll be catching a couple of my favorite local bands, the Makeup Monsters and Humble Cub. Tomorrow, of course, it'll be a full night of garage rock for Sonic Shakedown, with proceeds going to the American Diabetes Association.

NIKKI TALOTTA Features Writer
Tonight, I'm busting ass at the bar, Saturday, I'm making bacon potato chowder and eating as much of it as possible, sopping up the bottom of the bowl with sourdough rolls, and Sunday I'm watching cartoons and sleeping. There you have it folks, my fabulous weekend plans.

JOE IZENMAN Music/Theater Critic
While I'm busily watching The Hangover on DVD and recent release Due Date in a theater somewhere, I shall devote equal time convincing people that if they REALLY want to see Zack Galifianakis being awesome, they should go to The Grand Cinema for It's Kind Of A Funny Story. Do it. Really.

KRIS BLONDIN Food/Wine Writer
Hangin' in Westport with the DeRosa gang ALL weekend. Razor clam diggin', food, booze, and oh, so much leftover Halloween candy. You don't even know.  

JENNIFER JOHNSON: Lifestyle/Leisure Writer
I'm headed to the Sanford and Son grand opening party for "Get Well Tacoma" tonight at 7 p.m. after 6 p.m. yoga at Serenity on St. Helens. Saturday, I'll pick apples in Nisqually, check out "New Collection Event," head to Gig Harbor for tasty-as-heck teppanyaki, drop by La Fondita for some karaoke fun and swing in to Tempest to hear some smooth grooves. Sunday, I'm off to the Dia de los Muertos celebration at TAM followed by church dinner and fireside.

CHRISTIAN CARVAJAL: Theater Critic
I'm seeing How I Learned to Drive (Prodigal Sun Productions) and Cradle Will Rock (UPS), plus helping my sister and brother-in-law celebrate the grand re-opening of their barbecue restaurant, Smoking Mo's, in Union. Smoked meat for everyone!

STEVE DUNKELBERGER Meat Market Correspondent
It is a kiddo weekend for this single dad: Fall Youth Theatre performances at Lakewood Playhouse. Sunday, it's off to the Suffrage Centennial Tea inside the State Capital Museum. This historic event will come alive at the reenactment of a Pink Tea, which were held as fronts for suffrage activities in the early 1900s.

ALEC CLAYTON: Visual Arts Critic
 Going to see How I Learned to Drive at the Midnight Sun in Olympia. 

LINK: More arts and entertainment events in the South Sound

ART AT FUN >>>

The Tacoma art community came together last night for the Art at Work: Tacoma Arts Month kickoff party inside the Tacoma Art Museum. The celebration paid tribute to local artists and contributors, like glass artist/DJ/Fulcrum Gallery owner Oliver Doriss, nonprofit hip-hop arts group Fab-5, and Urban Grace Cfurch, winners of the 2010 AMOCAT awards for artist, organization and patron outreach, respectively. This party - which featured music and performances by members of the Tacoma Symphony, Tacoma Youth Symphony, Tacoma Opera and Tacoma Musical Playhouse, as well as hors d'oeuvres, desserts and a non-host bar - also paid tribute to Tacoma Artists Initiative Program grant recipients, Spaceworks Tacoma (applause for the property owners), and the dedicated work of the Tacoma Arts Commission.

Special shout out goes to 2009 Soul of the City Tacoma Poet Laureate Antonio Edwards for igniting the "shout outs" last night during the official ceremony. They were an art onto themselves.

I learned a few things last night, too. There's still room at 2010 Soul of the City Tacoma Poet Laureate Tammy Robacker's Poetry Writers Workshop Sunday, Nov. 7 inside Urban Grace Church; you can find cool glasses at Pearle Vision in Tacoma; Blue Hair Dave (Who Cares, Johnny Bobalouie) is on the verge of releasing a solo album; always buy insurance for your cell phone; fab5org.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">RR Anderson has created cool RR buttons; Fab-5 is beyond fab (nice to see you again, Jason!); the Weekly Volcano has scored SOTA interns this winter. 

Weekly Volcano photographer J.M. Simpson snapped a few shots of the party last night. You may see the batch in our Photo Hot Spot.

LINK: Art at Work events

UPPING THE ANTE IN ITS 27TH YEAR >>>

For now let's forget about ballots and House seats and propositions.

Governor Gregoire, please start us off: "A film festival is such a great tribute to democracy because it features a broad spectrum of voices and perspectives from around the world. ..." She included these words in a letter addressed to our state capitol's 27^th annual film festival, which begins Friday Nov. 12, and stretches for eight movie-packed days until the following Saturday's wee hours.

As calm eye of this cinematic hurricane, first-time Olympia Film Festival Director Sarah Adams packs plenty of passion and experience. She moved to the city from Wyoming in 1998 and soon plugged herself into a bustling arts community. In particular, the Festival "is just one of the things that has made me fall in love with Olympia," Adams says. She's hosted several cabaret acts at the Capitol Theater in recent years, and even found time beyond her duties as director to finish her own film. Her Chapter 11: Valencia plays alongside other shorts on Nov. 17at the We Make It Rad program.         

Adams' incorporation of grander live events into the lineup separates this festival from its predecessors. By merging two disparate forms - the "now" art of stage performance with the "past" art of mechanical cinema - audiences will understand and appreciate both more fully. With an Opening Night Gala of bearded ladies and soaring aerialists, visitors can witness the human form at its most eccentric, then watch that same form recast as robot in an extended cut of Fritz Lang's haunting Metropolis.

"I'm really upping the ante on Opening Night," says Adams, adding jokingly, "I'm trying to squeeze every ounce of majestic I can out of it."

Artists of many disciplines have contributed to the festival. Adams employed local filmmakers to design short videos for the event's many sponsors, which will run before the main screenings. A "mixed medium" presentation on Nov. 20 called "This Ballet Is Making You Smarter and More Attractive" features live dancers and musicians building an on-the-spot soundtrack to projected images. And close to the Capitol stands the Northern space, host to several workshops given by photographers and animators.

Films themselves borrow liberally from all the other arts; in a way Adams has adopted this strategy, inviting and uniting different talents to bring a festival of film to life. As she sees it, "There's just a really incredible performing arts community in Olympia ... [whose members] don't really have a space for their work." OFF may come closer than other events like it to that egalitarian vision Gregoire had in mind.

Whittling more than 200 film entries - some made across the street, others a continent or two away - down to a few dozen was a task left mainly in Festival Programmer Ivan Peycheff's able hands. He decides the weekly schedule at Seattle's oldest moviehouse, the Grand Illusion Cinema, and has now brought his knowledge south and loves it.

"The funniest thing," Peycheff says, "is just being able to ... go after [the films] I want, what I think would be really great."

Muslim punks and rappin' cowpokes. Live Skype chats with famous directors. Evil nympho mermaids and seriously pissed she-demons.

All this and much more under a single roof.

Ain't democracy grand?

2010 Olympia Film Festival

Friday, Nov. 12-Saturday, Nov. 20
Full schedule here
Capitol Theater, 205 Fifth Ave. E., Olympia
360.754.6670

LINK: Tickets!

BRING ON THE WEEKEND >>>

Normally, weekends are cool. I mean, for the average Monday-through-Friday, nine-to-five schmo, weekends are all we have - our glimmer of freedom in an otherwise tortuous, cubicle-filled world.

This weekend, though, IS EVEN BETTER. Not only are we given the usual two days of freedom - there's an extra hour thrown in for good measure! Day Light Savings kicks so much ass in the fall! Thanks George Vernon Hudson!

With that, it's time for The Prefunk - a weekly weekend guide to fun for you and your liver (with a picture of an alcoholic household pet thrown in for good measure).

Warren Miller Wintervention

Saturday & Sunday at the Pantages Theater

Warren Miller skiing (and now snowboarding) movies have been around since what seems like the beginning. As long as there has been fresh powder, it feels like Warren Miller Entertainment has been documenting it with yearly snow-porn like features, regularly drawing the ski-bums out in hordes to the theaters for a hype stirring start to the ski season.

Though Warren Miller sold his company years ago, and has even been sued by it since, the tradition continues. This weekend Warren Miller Entertainment's newest flick, Wintervention, will show Saturday and Sunday at the Pantages Theater in Tacoma. Narrated by ski legend Jonny Mosley, and capturing on film some of the most out-of-the-way ski heavens on earth, Wintervention promises to follow the tracks Warren Miller Entertainment films have been carving since the company's inception.

If you've already got the itch for the chairlifts to start running, find a way to make it to one of three showings this weekend. Saturday Wintervention will show at 6 and 9 p.m., and on Sunday it'll show at 5 p.m.

PREFUNK: Most skiers and snowboarders, or at least most skiers and snowboarders I'd care to take a few runs with, have a time-tested method of sneaking swigs of bourbon or hits from a Proto-Pipe while bundled on a chair lift or tucked behind a tree on the edge of the slope. It's part of the game. Though the professionals captured on Wintervention surely stay clear-headed while rocketing down untouched bowls of orgasmic powder, the skiers and snowboarders I kick it with stay a little cloudy while maintaining the ability to enjoy Washington's crusty, icy, sometimes even rainy slopes. A flask or sneak-a-toke is often key in this pursuit.

But, why wait until the season opens to unleash your sneak-a-buzz technique? Just like your skis need waxed and your muscles need prepped in advance of the coming season, so does your secret-drinking-and/or-pipe-hitting skill. Prior to Warren Miller Entertainment's Wintervention at the Pantages, take a few minutes do work the rust off.